Bringing Gravitational Waves into the Classroom: Sumeet Kulkarni at the OAE’s 4th Shaw-IAU Workshop
0Title: Bringing gravitational waves into the classroom using Streamlit.
Summary: A new interactive web-app can teach concepts of oscillations and waves using Gravitational Waves.
This was a talk given at the 4th Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education, organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE, http//astro4edu.org).
Physics concepts surrounding oscillations and waves at the middle- and high-school level can be introduced in a more enticing way by hooking students with cutting-edge research in gravitational waves. We have developed an online, interactive module that serves this purpose using Streamlit, a python-based library. The module connects the astrophysics of black holes to the properties of waves that they emit, forming a toolkit for teaching the same in anengaging way. Itcan beself-completed, usedin anonlinelesson, or interactively in a classroom module. Formative assessment questions are provided at a conceptual level.
About Sumeet Kulkami:
Sumeet Kulkarni is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Mississippi and holds a Masters's degree in Science Education. He is passionate about science communication and public engagement. He was a science outreach fellow at LIGO Livingston in Spring 2022.
About the 4th Shaw-IAU Workshop:
The topic for this year’s Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education is ‘Leveraging the potential of astronomy in formal education’ and is scheduled to run 15 to 17 November 2022 as a fully virtual event on Hopin as in previous years. This year’s Shaw-IAU Workshop focuses on the role of astronomy in the core regions of formal, primary and secondary, education: How do we teach astronomy as its own subject? What is the role of astronomy in teaching physics or chemistry – or in communicating such a central future topic as climate change? In sessions marked with a * we aim to hear specifically from teachers. We also address the question of how to approach those who set the framework for teaching: How can you get your administration, or at a much higher level: your education ministry, to listen to you? Last but not least we look at how to bridge the divide between the fundamentals that are commonly taught in school and results from cutting-edge research, which tend to be fascinating to students and the general public alike. he workshop was organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (http://astro4edu.org). More details can be found on: https://astro4edu.org/shaw-iau/4th-shaw-iau-workshop/
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